Page 10 - Gender Inequality in Sports: From Title IX to World Titles

Title IX was one of the remedies created for this devaluation. In 1972,
before Title IX was passed, women earned 7 percent of law degrees and
9 percent of medical degrees. Law schools and medical schools receive
federal funding, so after 1972, they were subject to Title IX regulations
and parity standards. Thirty-five years later, in 2007, women graduated
with 47.5 percent of law degrees and 49.1 percent of medical degrees.
Sexism could be fixed if men would demand equal treatment for
everyone, as women generally do. Because of sexism and our patriarchy
(a society that privileges the power of men), men hold the power to
make the change. If men’s players, coaches, leagues, team owners, and
governing bodies would commit to the equity and equality of women’s
sports, eliminating sexism would be achievable.
Feminism isn’t a negative word, nor is it an exclusionary word. Feminism
is the desire to have all genders treated equally and provided with the same
opportunities in all areas of society. Feminism supports people’s right to
choose their jobs and roles in life, especially if those choices go against gender

TRAILBLAZING WOMEN ATHLETES:
ALTHEA GIBSON AND WILMA RUDOLPH

Before we had Serena and Venus, before Simone, Suni, and Naomi,
we had Althea Gibson and Wilma Rudolph. Though they came before
the era of megastar athletes, Gibson and Rudolph set the stage for
the powerhouse women athletes of color who came after them.
Tennis player Althea Gibson cracked the color barrier in
both tennis and golf. Born in 1927 in South Carolina, she was
the first Black player to win a Grand Slam title (the 1956 French
Championships), and she then went on to win both Wimbledon and
the US Nationals in 1957 and 1958. She was voted the Female

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